Shopping, particularly shopping at a physical facility, has become a way of life. In one form or another, shopping is as old as civilization itself and has not varied a great deal, other than perhaps the now extremely wide array of goods and services that are available to the shopper.
Indeed, the number of choices that a modern shopper has is sometimes overwhelming. Thus, often a shopper needs assistance with his/her purchases. This assistance relates not only to styles, but to sizes (especially for gift items) and color coordination, and extends to the financial aspect of shopping, such as credit available or credit remaining on a gift card, or the availability of coupons or other money saving promotions.
Often, a shopper will have made a mental (or physical) note of some item that the shopper wanted to buy on his/her next visit to the store, but memories (and notes written on slips of paper) being what they are the desired item is forgotten about when the user is in the store.
Thus, while PDAs and like devices have eliminated some of the “memory” issues associated with visiting a merchant's facility (whether physically or virtually), these devices are attuned only to the shopper's needs and do not match the desires of the shopper with the merchandise and services available at a particular location.